Second Chance Thrift Store sits at 1152 3rd Avenue in Prince George, British Columbia, and unlike most thrift shops it exists first as a training ground and only second as a retail floor. The store is operated by the Canadian Mental Health Association’s Northern BC branch and stocks exactly what its community donates: low-priced previously owned clothing and footwear alongside small household goods, with the shop periodically putting out specific calls for donations, men’s clothing and plus-size items among the more recent needs. Every dollar the register brings in goes back into the program rather than to outside ownership, since the entire operation is structured as a nonprofit social enterprise.
The store’s clearest differentiating fact is its partnership structure: it operates in collaboration with Northern BC’s mental health community to provide retail training and paid employment specifically for people living with mental illness. The store’s hours are limited and specific rather than built around maximizing retail traffic: open Monday and Tuesday from 1 to 4 in the afternoon, Thursday from 10 in the morning until 4, and Friday from 9:30 to 12:30, with the shop closed entirely on Wednesdays and weekends. That schedule reflects the fact that staffing the floor is itself the point. Second Chance was set up to provide retail training and paid employment specifically for people living with mental illness, giving participants a structured, supportive place to build workplace skills, from handling a till to sorting donations to talking with customers, while working toward the kind of resume experience that can be difficult to come by elsewhere. CMHA’s own account of the program describes measurable gains for participants in retail and social skills, a stronger sense of purpose, and real increases in confidence, with one documented year alone seeing participants log more than 1,700 hours on the floor.
That model sets Second Chance apart from a typical secondhand shop even though the merchandise mix, used clothing, shoes, and household basics, looks similar to what a shopper would find at any donation-based thrift store. The difference is where the proceeds and the labor both point: back into a mental health employment program run by an established Northern BC health charity rather than into a private business or a large national retail chain. For Prince George shoppers, that means a browse through the racks doubles as direct support for local mental wellness programming, and for anyone in the community managing a mental illness, it means a real, paid entry point into retail work with training built around their needs rather than around them.
Location on 3rd Avenue keeps the store within the city’s central core, accessible to downtown Prince George’s other shops and services, though its limited weekday afternoon hours mean planning a visit around the posted schedule rather than dropping in casually. Anyone donating clothing, footwear, or small household items in Prince George can support the program directly by bringing goods to that address during open hours. Second Chance Thrift Store in Prince George is a CMHA Northern BC social enterprise that turns secondhand clothing sales into paid retail training and employment for people living with mental illness.
